Retro Recruitment as we wait . . .

[33girl]

This is why importing a chapter is bad bad bad! No matter how small you are!

They would have been better off to start as they meant to go on and say they were looking for a group of girls to rebuild the chapter, rather than waste the rushees' time talking to women who they didn't even go e school with & come across as looking shady.

[SweetTeaParty]

Now, let's have a little side trail over to Roomie's story.

She had gone through recruitment under duress and had joined the same way. Her family should have known what would happen – but, they were too intent on her being a different person than she actually was.

To tell the truth, the Posh house had invited her under duress too, as she was a triple legacy. Her family was EXCEPTIONALLY wealthy (think, Paris Hilton-wealthy); I'm sure they donated frequently to the Posh National. She absolutely DID NOT fit into their group. Yet, there she was, sitting on their perfect furniture, make-up free, untamed waist length hair, unshaven legs (and underarms) and (slightly) smelly. Not to mention that she believed in “free love” (oh yes, she used that moniker) and tried to get stoned every day. I'm guessing they didn't want her either.

What to do???

I know the Posh house thought she'd get a preference invite to the other houses and like them better, but the others all released her. As she was a legacy, I'm also sure she had to go on their 1st bid list. Sad, really.

But, I'll have to give the Poshes a hand for trying.

They really went out of their way to be friendly and inclusive. They coated our door with welcome cards and posters. They dragged her to their table in the cafeteria every day. They showered her with gifts. They dropped by the room to visit. (Rah, Rah! Posh!) But, it didn't work. Within a few weeks Roomie resigned her bid. She just WAS NOT GLO material.

[33girl]

Oh, here is my other question. If no one actually lived in the houses, who cleaned them?

[jolene]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Oh, here is my other question. If no one actually lived in the houses, who cleaned them?

It seems weird to have a house no one lives in. I can understand if it's a chapter suite or lodge, but with a townhouse or regular house, I'd think sisters would live there.

[SweetTeaParty]

33: Oh yeah, we didn't eat in our house - - except for snacks or events. We had designated tables in the cafeteria. Events would have had a cleaning committee.

Our active members 'cleaned' the house every other Sat morning - - or you were fined. (You rotated through vacuuming, dusting, kitchen and bathroom duty)

The Babys/Sportys did the same - - it was rumored the Poshes hired a cleaning service.

Actually, it was fun, you could hear the other ladies' music in "Sorority Yard" and we usually ended up in a party . . .

[SweetTeaParty]

Jolene: It WAS weird - the house sat silent and empty A LOT. One night a group of us went over to study (I THINK we finally got around to studying!) and totally freaked out campus security.

They didn't know and thought someone was trespassing.

After that, you had to tell the security office that you were there.

[IndianaSigKap]

I just had a feeling roomie was a Posh legacy. But what happened to the Scary house? Did they close? Or did they get 15 girls?

[SweetTeaParty]

Oh Yeah, and (this was in the south, so ya'll understand) we had Cockroaches and mice when I first joined - we had to add a line item to our budget for the Exterminator.

He use to tease us with the comment, "Those mice must have little tee-shirts to wear to your meetings . . . they keep coming back!')

(of course, they might get fined)

A few years later his daughter pledged us!

[SweetTeaParty]

And now, . . . the reveal?







Nope.




There is more to this story.

As you know, before RFM, the weak recruiting chapters usually ended up folding within a few years as they recruited fewer and fewer members, just like what had happened to the Scarys - -

was THAT going to happen to the Gingers?

OR was my pledge class going to start to make a difference?

As we ran over to our new homes, we all noticed how dark and quiet the Scary house was. Then, we knew - - no new members AGAIN. So sad they would be gone soon. (They closed by Christmas and sold their beautiful, beautiful house to the school - today it is incorporated into a newer building as a lobby)

But we had a fantastic time that night.

The frats came by to serenade the new members of each group – so sweet and old fashioned! They had changed their sweetheart songs to be the Greek Letters of each house – Oh, my!

We had to formally sign our new member cards to accept our bids and then we went out to dinner together at a nice Italian restaurant in reserved room.

[SweetTeaParty]

Later that week we had our first meeting with our Membership Educator who turned out to be my RA!! And I had guessed her to be a Baby!

My membership class had 14 members – 4 of them were sophomores. Quota had been 19. The Gingers were short again.

Here's how it shook out:

Posh: Took exactly quota. Including Roomie.
Sporty: Took a little over quota to reach house limit.
Baby: Took the most new members. Still one short of house limit.
Ginger: Took 14 new members. House at 44 – could take 16 in COB.
Scary – Nobody.

(Turned out, the gossip girl in the library DID know how it would go!)

[SweetTeaParty]

Just like the rest of the Gingers, our new members were a diverse group.

One other new member really stood out, even in our first meeting. That was Beth, she had REGRETTED the Posh Preference Party! None of us could believe it! WHAT?? EVERYONE wanted to be a Posh.

“Nope,” she told us. “I want to go where I can make a difference. I want to make the Gingers the group everyone wants to be,” she stated.

WOW. The same thought I had. But where I took lemons and made lemonade, she had a glass of lemonade handed to her, but she wanted champagne! I just knew that she and I were going to get along. Beth was elected president of our New Member Class and I was sure she had her eye on being President of Ginger in a few years. She took on filling out our house to limit (16 more new members) seriously.

Don't think that our National Office didn't size up what was going on at our chapter.

Yes, they were worried (NO, they were panicked) that within a few years – we'd be the Scary group.

For our formal pinning ceremony, a National representative showed up and called several Leader's Council meetings. My sister, Lisa, was recording secretary for the chapter and she just rolled her eyes when I asked about the representative. “National is worried about us,” is all she would say. “We're going to start COB as soon as the spring semester starts in January.”

Now COB was allowed on our campus – but VERY few new members were ever taken that way. It was considered that, “You're so desperate for members, you'll take anybody” if you had a COB event. There were almost NO spring semester transfers to our school AND Scary had tried COB parties for years to increase their numbers.

The actives were shaking their heads, “No, no, no.”

And the National Office was saying, “Oh, yes, yes, yes! You WILL have COB recruitment.”

[SweetTeaParty]

National decided we were not recruitment competitive on many levels, but we'd take them on our shortfalls individually.

The first one we tackled was our house. It just didn't shine like the Posh or Scary house. One of the other new members had a mother who was an interior designer – she shuddered when she entered the house. Oh, yes – that ancient black flocked, metallic silver paper HAD TO GO! Also, the TV, couch and club chair - BAAAAAD. Under the carpet – beautiful hardwood floors. Then we needed to paint and update the chapter room, bathrooms (strip wallpaper again) and kitchen and replace all the light fixtures. Our house committee wrote letters to alumni, parents and National. We actually started getting donations.

Our Pledge project was to strip that hideous wallpaper off the entry hall and replace it with a faux paint surface. Then, some alums and parents donated nicer couches, rugs, chairs and a TV! (I don't remember if they were new, but they were better than we had before.) After we had stripped off all the wallpaper, the painters came in and painted the chapter room during the Holiday break, the hardwood floors were refinished – by Spring Break, we had a different house – it was amazing!

[jolene]

I'm confused. Did Beth pledge Posh or Ginger? It sounds like she got a Posh bid and changed her mind. If you drop out of your pledge class, you normally have to wait a year to pledge again. Is Beth the roomie?

[SweetTeaParty]

Sorry, Jolene, I 'm trying not to confuse anyone.

No - - Beth isn't Roomie.

Beth REGRETTED her invite to the Posh Pref party (and pledged Ginger). (Who knows where she would have ended up on Posh's bid list.)

Most PNMs have "Stars in their eyes" (and cotton in their ears) so that when they got an invite to the Posh House Preference Party - - they thought they were going to get a bid - - not so.

The RFM system actually helps with this because if you're not high on their list - - you are released early, in time to consider ALL your options.

What I meant was, "Beth had a perfect invite list (ie, invite to ALL the preference parties) - - and she regretted Posh.

Roomie accepted her Posh bid - - then resigned (and whoever was #20 on their list didn't get a Posh bid because Posh "wasted" it on Roomie - - who NEVER would have made it through to initiation, anyway. I know, they couldn't help it - - Roomie WAS a triple legacy)

[SweetTeaParty]

The next thing to do, National asserted, was to sharpen our interview and conversation skills. Really, a few lessons in this, and most poor recruiters would do better.

So our District Adviser came and spent 2 weeks with us to work on this. She told us that National's plan was for us to have our formal in early March and invite our COB candidates to attend. (Not really a bad idea) We even underwrote the cost of the candidates' tickets so we could truly ask them to come as our guests. We also came up with extra cash to hire a LIVE band (instead of a DJ) and upgrade to a nicer location. The Jr/Soph actives were asked to invite at least one person each – and the Freshmen were asked to invite two.


The Adviser had us to practice, practice, practice engaging in conversation and trying to put others at ease. (What a great life skill!) We had about 10 ladies to accept our dance invitations; From that core group – we had 5 sign up for COB the next week. And, all 5 of them accepted bids.


We were so excited to have actually reached the fall quota. It was the first time in several years. National told us to concentrate on getting to house total – 60? Most members thought that was impossible. But not Beth – she just focused in and said, it CAN be done!